「007. barbie gets to talk prophecy」

BARBIE ALLEN didn't have to be a genius (although, not to toot her own horn, but sometimes she was a genius) to know the reason everybody was staring at her was that the oracle said 'porcelain doll' and not because of the luscious outfit she'd meticulously picked out (which was kind of sad, she did love a good compliment... but like, not in a vain and superficial way).

but, as much as she wanted to follow the councillors who'd be seen heading to the meeting to discuss the prophecy, she knew she couldn't. she may have helped out silena a lot, but she still wasn't a cabin leader. and no matter how many times she'd tried, she'd never been able to get into one of the council meetings. no matter how much she begged, or even tried to persuade them. she even tried charmspeak once, but she regretted it immediately because she then got kitchen duty for a month.

she was subtly walking away, kind of sad she wasn't able to go when her older sister, silena called and said, "oh no you don't! you're coming with me! get your ass back here!"

"but 'lena, i can't go," said barbie, "and when was the last time you even let me come to one of these? never."

"because i don't think you should go," decided silena, "but now i do. this prophecy, it obviously includes you. so... yeah, you're coming with me."

barbie's frown broke into a smile, "wait, really? you're not joking?"

"nope," said silena, "but if this quest really does revolve around you... please be careful barb."

"i will," grinned barbie, suddenly feeling very excited, "let's go see what the prophecy means!"

the council was held around a ping pong table in the rec room. mr d had supplied them all with snacks, but barbie was full of nervous excitement and decided it was best not to eat in case something unfortunate happened. most of the head councillors were there (except for the ares cabin because all of their limbs had accidentally been broken by the hunters).

barbie sat nervously next to silena who was telling her to stop worrying because she was going to be fine and barbie smiled. silena was one of the coolest half-sisters she had, she always knew what to say and was practically barbie's big sister when she first came, and so barbie was fiercely loyal to her...and it did help that silena gave a really good manicure and basically taught her everything she knew about sewing.

zoë started the meeting off with a loud scoff and a roll of her eyes, "this is pointless. there is no time for talk. our goddess needs us. the hunters must leave immediately."

"and go where?" asked chiron.

"west!" said bianca who sat next to zoë like a little assistant which would have been adoring if zoë hadn't been glaring daggers at the two aphrodite kids. silena was too nice to glare back, but barbie wasn't, she sent back a withering glare, the two of them in an intense staring battle.

"you heard the prophecy!" said bianca, "six shall go west to the goddess in chains, we can get six hunters and go!"

"bianca, sweetie-"

"don't call her sweetie, daughter of aphrodite-"

"what is it to you, nightshade?" spat barbie, "i'm trying to be nice, unlike you... we're your courteousness to the aphrodite cabin? just because you deny the notion of love doesn't mean you have to be rude to us. you don't see us calling you out, so why are you doing it to us? huh?"

"i do-"

"enough," spoke chiron firmly.

"you're missing something, as usual," spoke thalia completely ignoring the tense battle barbie and zoë had just had, "it says campers and hunters prevail."

"thank you," muttered barbie, making silena smile in a way that said: be nice please, i don't want another headache because of your deadass.

"no!" spoke zoë, "the hunters do not need thy help-"

"your," spoke thalia, "nobody has said thy in like three hundred years, zoë. get with the times."

zoë hesitated like she was trying to form the word correctly, "yerrr. we do not need yerrr help."

she sounds like a pirate, thought barbie with a smirk.

thalia rolled her eyes, "forget it."

"i fear the prophecy says you do need our help," chiron said, "campers and hunters must cooperate.'

"or do they?" dionysus mused, swirling his diet coke under his nose like it had a fine bouquet. "one shall be lost. one shall perish. that sounds rather nasty, doesn't it? what if you fail because you try to cooperate?"

"mr d," chiron sighed, "with all due respect, whose side are you on?"

dionysus raised his eyebrows, "sorry, my dear centaur. just trying to be helpful."

"we're supposed to work together," thalia said stubbornly, "i don't like it either, zoë, but you know prophecies. you want to fight against one?"

zoë grimaced, but barbie could tell thalia had scored a point.

"we must not delay," chiron warned.

"today is sunday. this very friday, december twenty-first, is the winter solstice."

"well then we need to work quickly," spoke barbie.

"oh, joy," dionysus muttered, "another dull annual meeting."

"artemis must be present at the solstice," zoë said, "she has been one of the most vocal on the council arguing for action against kronos's minions. if she is absent, the gods will decide nothing. we will lose another year of war preparations."

"are you suggesting that the gods have trouble acting together, young lady?" dionysus asked.

"yes, lord dionysus."

mr d nodded, "just checking. you're right, of course. carry on."

"i must agree with zoë," said chiron, "artemis's presence at the winter council is critical. we have only a week to find her. and possibly even more important: to locate the monster she was hunting. now, we must decide who goes on this quest."

"well, barbie has to go," cut in silena.

"she will do no such thing," spat zoë, "she is a daughter of aphrodite, none of the hunters will want-"

"but it's in the prophecy," spoke percy making everybody look at him, and thalia had actually not ignored him, "it said the porcelain doll , so barbie has to come."

barbie had actually expected percy not to defend her, so his defence was a pleasant surprise, "thanks, water boy."

he shot her a glare and muttered something that sounded like, "on second thought..."

"so barbara is one of the half-bloods who must go then," spoke chiron and barbie felt a rush of excitement hit her again, "but who else?"

"three and three." spoke percy making everybody look at him in confusion, "if the quest asks for six, then it should be three hunters and three half-bloods, to make it fair."

thalia and zoë exchanged looks.

"well," thalia said, "it does make sense."

zoë grunted, "i would prefer to take all the hunters. we will need the strength of numbers."

barbie huffed and rolled her eyes, somebody seems like they really want to ignore the prophecy. when people do that they die, honey.

"you'll be retracing the goddess's path," chiron reminded her, "moving quickly. no doubt artemis racked the scent of this rare monster, whatever it is, as she moved west. you will have to do the same. the prophecy was clear: the bane of olympus shows the trail. what would your mistress say? 'too many hunters spoil the scent.' a small group is best."

zoë picked up a ping-pong paddle and studied it like she was deciding who she wanted to whack first, "this monster, the bane of olympus. i have hunted at lady artemis's side for many years, yet i have no idea what this beast might be."

everybody looked at dionysus, he was flipping through a wine magazine, but when everyone got silent he glanced up, "well, don't look at me. i'm a young god, remember? i don't keep track of all those ancient monsters and dusty titans. they make for terrible party conversation."

"chiron," percy said, "you don't have any ideas about the monster?"

chiron pursed his lips, "i have several ideas, none of them good. and none of them quite make sense. typhon, for instance, could fit this description. he was truly a bane of olympus. or the sea monster ketos. but if either of these were stirring, we would know it. they are ocean monsters the size of skyscrapers. your father poseidon would already have sounded the alarm. i fear this monster may be more elusive. perhaps even more powerful."

"that's some serious danger you're facing," connor stoll said, "it sounds like at least two of the six are going to die."

"one shall be lost in the land without rain," beckendorf said, "if I were you, i'd stay out of the desert."

there was a muttering of agreement.

"and shall use the power within her heart ? what does that mean?" asked thalia, looking at barbie, expecting an answer. but barbie kept quiet, she'd only recently got her powers, so she didn't really know about this 'heart' stuff.

"and the titan's curse must one withstand," silena said, "what could that mean?"

barbie saw chiron and zoë exchange a nervous look, but whatever they were thinking, they didn't share it, making the excitement in barbie slowly turn to fear. how dangerous would this quest really be?

"one shall perish by a parent's hand," grover said in between bites of cheez whiz and ping-pong balls.

"there will be deaths," chiron decided, "that much we know."

"oh, goody!" dionysus said.

everyone looked at him. he glanced up innocently from the pages of wine connoisseur magazine, "ah, pinot noir is making a comeback. don't mind me."

"percy is right," said silena, "three campers should go."

"oh, i see," zoë said sarcastically, "and i suppose you wish to volunteer?"

silena blushed, "i'm not going anywhere with the hunters. don't look at me!"

"a daughter of aphrodite does not wish to be looked at," zoë scoffed, "what would thy mother say?"

"hey zoë? do us a favour and be quiet," snapped barbie, glaring at the girl fiercely, "you don't talk to my half-sister like that. if you got nothing nice to say to my cabin then don't say it. or even better, don't say anything at all."

that's when barbie knew this little quest was going to be difficult. i mean, when had a hunter and a daughter of aphrodite worked together?

barbie was looking around the room bored, she was already going on the quest, so did she really have to stay around for the rest of it? she needed to pack, she needed to get all the essentials together and be ready for tomorrow. then finally, the council meeting was over.

"so be it," chiron said, "thalia, barbara and grover will accompany zoë, bianca and phoebe. you shall leave at first light. and may the gods -" he glanced at dionysus "-present company included, we hope, be with you."

as much as barbie hated percy jackson, she still felt bad for him. not only had she lost her best friend, he had too. and he couldn't even go on a quest that could potentially find her. and that sucked. it was too late to say goodbye to anybody. and her mind was eating at her. percy was probably so sad right now. c'mon, be nice, write a note, one side of her brain said.

but he's an asshole, countered the other.

but your the bigger person, replied the right side of the brain.

i- yeah i'm going to do that, she thought to herself.

jackson,

i know, it must suck not to be able to go
on a quest that could potentially save
annie. i'm not writing this to rub it in your
face. i'm just going to say, we're going to
try to get her back. so... don't do anything
stupid whilst i'm gone. i enjoy calling out
your dumbassery.

-barb

she had then slid it under his cabin door and quickly walked back to her cabin, hoping she'd have a good nights sleep. as she walked in, she saw most people were already in bed. but she saw one figure sitting on their bed, staring at something. she walked over, and placed a hand on their shoulder.

"val?" she asked, "what's up?"

"my ma," he explained, "i miss her."

barbie thought back to when she'd met his mortal mother. she was a petite woman with curly hair much like her son's. she had caramel skin much like val's and eyes like honey. ms garcia was always a welcomed favourite at the aphrodite cabin who brought her special homemade food and often shipped it over. val was one of the few year-rounders who often visited home. he would never be at camp on christmas day, or his mom's birthday.

and to be honest, ms garcia was basically barbie's second mom since her dad had just... kind of didn't be her dad.

"you'll see her again," she said, trying to reassure him, before she sat on his bed and laughed slightly, "remember when she stood outside of camp with her homemade quesadillas? she kept shouting for you to come or she'd drop them and let the monsters have them."

valentino snorted slightly, "gods, how could i forget? ma has always been like that. but i... i miss her."

barbie nodded and hugged her brother once more, before she went to her own bed to sleep.

she didn't like sleep anymore. she had hoped she'd go to sleep that night without a dream. but hey, sometimes the gods just love to make your life a little bit harder. barbie was starting to think they actively tried to make her life a living representation of the field of punishments because this was now going to be another nightmare. back to back with yesterday's one.

"how is our mortal guest?" a male voice boomed.

luke emerged from the shadows. he ran to annabeth, knelt beside her, then looked back at the unseen man, "she's fading. we must hurry."

stop acting like you care about her, scoffed barbie in her thoughts.

then a meaty hand thrust someone forward into the light, artemis, her hands and feet bound in celestial bronze chains. barbie gasped in shock and horror. her silvery dress was torn and tattered. her face and arms were cut in several places, and she was bleeding ichor, the golden blood of the gods.

"you heard the boy," said the man in the shadows, "decide!"

artemis's eyes flashed with anger. the goddess looked at annabeth, and her expression changed to concern and outrage, "how dare you torture a maiden like this!"

"she will die soon," luke said, "you can save her."

barbie wanted to run to annabeth, and maybe to kick luke where the sun don't shine.

"free my hands," artemis said.

luke brought out his sword, backbiter. with one expert strike, he broke the goddess's handcuffs. artemis ran to annabeth and took the burden from her shoulders. annabeth collapsed on the ground and lay there shivering. artemis staggered, trying to support the weight of the black rocks.

the man in the shadows chuckled, "you are as predictable as you were easy to beat, artemis."

"you surprised me," the goddess said, straining under her burden, "it will not happen again."

"indeed it will not," the man said, "now you are out of the way for good! i knew you could not resist helping a young maiden. that is, after all, your speciality, my dear."

artemis groaned, "you know nothing of mercy, you swine."

"on that," the man said, "we can agree. luke, you may kill the girl now."

"no!" artemis shouted.

luke hesitated, looking down to annabeth who was trembling with pain and maybe fear, "she...she may yet be useful, sir. further bait."

"-how little you know, my young goddess," the man in the shadows said, "even now, your darling attendants begin their quest to find you. they shall play directly into my hands. now, if you'll excuse us, we have a long journey to make. we must greet your hunters and make sure their quest is... challenging."

the man's laughter echoed in the darkness, shaking the ground until it seemed the whole cavern ceiling would collapse.

barbie shot up from her bed with a shiver. heaving, looking around trying to calm herself down.

"gods, i hate demigod dreams."

rosie speaks!

ok quick rant.

uncle rick actually did
state that gods could have children with
the same sex. also, i'm surprised y'all would
even think gender would stop a horny
immortal being with divine powers.

so to those who have a problem
with valentino having two moms, please
kindly fuck off. it's not only my story, but
canon in the rioardan universe. if you want
to argue with uncle rick's canon then

be my guest. but i stan valentino having two
moms.

and ms garcia is an actual legend.

so like if you don't like this, pls just don't read
my book. also, rick says that gods can choose
 how long they stay pregnant for.

ok, rant done.

word count: 2,831 words